Chapter 3

She was just doing it at the cost of my dignity.

Which noble couple in the capital didn't attend banquets together?

And which wife paraded a man with no standing around town for everyone to see?

That day, as usual, I went to pay my respects to Helena's mother, Lady Beatrice.

The moment I walked in, I saw Lucian clinging to Helena's arm, looking very pleased with himself.

Helena sat beside him, her eyes full of a tenderness I'd never seen before.

The moment Lady Beatrice saw me, her face darkened. Her tone was cutting.

"You still have the nerve to show your face here? You've been married to Helena for five years, and you still haven't given her a child. You won't even let her take a paramour.

"If Helena hadn't met Lucian and gotten pregnant, you'd have ruined the royal family's dignity!"

I froze mid-bow and looked up at Helena, but she only turned her face away awkwardly.

She had no intention of speaking up for me.

It wasn't the first time Lady Beatrice had given me a hard time about children, but it was the first time Helena hadn't defended me.

Yet she was the one who'd drugged my tea so we could never have children.

And she was the one who'd refused to take a paramour, putting on a show of how devoted she was to me.

I stood in silence for a long moment, and soon I felt nothing at all, neither sorrow nor joy.

"Forgive me, Lady Beatrice."

Lucian spoke up with feigned concern. "Oh, come on, Aunt Beatrice, don't be angry. Even if Julian can't have children, you shouldn't get so worked up."

Only now did I learn that Lucian was Helena's distant cousin.

The two had been childhood sweethearts in the army camps.

Later, as Helena's military honors piled up, she rose from a minor noble title to a higher one.

Then she married me, the son of a duke, and only then was she raised to princess.

Her mother's rank rose with her.

When the late Emperor died, Helena was the only senior princess still in the capital.

So the current Emperor granted her the title Grand Princess of Lyria.

And once she married me, Lucian had no choice but to leave her.

So she'd never loved me at all.

I lowered my eyes to hide the bitterness in them and sat alone in the seat farthest from them.

Before long, a maid brought in several plates of pastries. I was about to try one when Helena spoke up furiously.

"Who made the almond pastries? Take them out and give them twenty lashes!"

My hand stopped mid-reach, and I looked at her without thinking.

In our three years of marriage, the thing Helena was best known for was petitioning the Emperor in front of everyone at a palace banquet to have every almond dish removed, because I was allergic to almonds.

That made her every man in the capital's idea of the perfect wife.

I was about to ask her to spare the servant when I heard her say, "All of you, remember this. Master Lucian can't eat anything with almonds in it.

"If I catch any of you forgetting again, don't expect any mercy."

Just two sentences, and all my pride shattered.

By now, I knew Helena had never loved me.

I knew she'd tricked me into asking the Emperor to let her marry Lucian.

I knew she was already taking back every bit of favor she'd ever shown me.

But I still couldn't help telling myself that after five years of knowing each other and three years of marriage, she must feel at least a little something for me, even just a little.

But even that last bit of affection had been fake.

Ten days remained until the Emperor's decree.

His Majesty invited the noble families to the palace to admire the flowers.

Helena had the carriage waiting at the door early.

Without thinking, I reached for her hand.

She pulled away.

"Not in broad daylight. It isn't proper."

I stared at her. I'd only been helping her into the carriage.

Two years ago, I'd had too much to drink at a palace banquet and refused to get in the carriage.

It was Helena who'd held me up and walked me all the way home from the palace.